America got a terrific look at a classy lady yesterday when Valerie Plame testified before Henry Waxman’s Government Reform and Oversight Committee about the events surrounding her betrayal by the Bush Administration. And America got a disturbing look at a Republican party devoid of reason and just plain common sense when Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland and Libby loyalist Victoria Toensing did the intellectual equivalent of declaring, THERE IS NO SUN.
You see, it was rainy and cloudy in Washington, DC yesterday. Since they could not see the Sun there was in fact no Sun. They had to see it to believe it. Okay. I’m making that part up. Westmoreland and Toensing were far more obtuse and stupid than a person who would insist the Sun did not exist because they could not see it. Westy and Toenag demonstrated a level of stupidity and obtuseness that one usually only encounters among schizophrenics hospitalized with the criminally insane. Despite Valerie’s sworn testimony and a statement endorsed by the current director of the CIA, these dopes droned on and on that Valerie Plame was not undercover when she was exposed in Robert Novak’s July 2003 ill-fated column.
I find it absolutely mind boggling that adults like Westmoreland and Toensing can be so out of touch with reality and still allowed to walk around without a straight jacket keeping them under control. It would be one thing if we were arguing about the color of Valerie’s hair color in 1989 and had only a black and white picture as evidence. Such a discussion would truly be one based on one’s own opinions. But that is not the case here folks. It is a simple question. Was Valerie a covert officer when her name appeared in Bob Novak’s column in July 2003?
Before Valerie’s testimony on Friday the CIA had never put anything on the public record regarding her status. Yesterday the CIA came out of the closet. CIA Director Michael Hayden approved a statement that contained the following language:
During her employment at the CIA, Ms. Wilson was under cover.
Her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.
At the time of the publication of Robert Novak’s column on July 14,2003, Ms. Wilson’s CIA employment status was covert.
This was classified information.
Got it? The Director of the CIA confirmed in public for the first time that Valerie Plame Wilson was undercover, was covert and that this information was classified. What is it about English that goober Congressman Westmoreland and ditzy Vicky Toensing don’t understand?
But hell, you do not have to believe General Hayden. Believe Valerie. She testified under oath. The results of the Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial still fresh in her mind, she is asked under oath about an objective fact that, if wrong, can be easily disproved. She minced no words: “I was undercover”.
The twit Victoria Toensing continued to insist however, along with other Bush apologists, that Valerie was not covert per the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Well, once again, here are the damn facts. According to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act:
(4) The term “covert agent” means:(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency—
(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or
(B) a United States citizen whose intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information, and—
You do not even have to be a lawyer to figure this out. You only need a brain. The first question is whether or not Valerie worked for the CIA. Newflash–she did!! Well, that’s what Robert Novak was told by two Administration officials.
Point two–Was Valerie’s indentity classified information? Yesterday CIA Director Michael Hayden said yes. Valerie, while under oath, also said yes. And we also have statements on the record by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and that of her fellow CIA colleagues–Jim Marcinkowski, Michael Grimaldi, Brent Cavan, and me–who are also on the record stating she was undercover and her identity as a CIA officer was classified.
Point three–Did Valerie meet any of the criteria set out above (i.e. A, B, or C)? The answer is yes, per subsection A. Valerie served outside the United States in the five years prior to July 2003. Valerie, under oath, said so. CIA Director Hayden approved a statement that said in part:
Ms. Wilson served at various times overseas for the CIA. Without discussing the specifics of Ms. W’ilson’s classified work, it is accurate to say that she worked on the prevention of the development and use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States.
If there is any lingering doubt among the mentally challenged Republicans simply subpoena her retirement record. The CIA recorded every date she traveled overseas.
Now Vicky Toensing, oblivious to the facts, insists that when she helped write the law this section was intended to mean you had to live overseas. BULLSHIT! Toensing is is now just making shit up. She has not been briefed by the CIA about Valerie’s status nor has she been given access to classified information on Valerie’s career. But it is not surprising that Toensing pretends to know what she has no way of knowing. She also claims to be a principal author of the IIPA. Not true. Just ask Brent Budowsky. Budowsky was Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s chief staffer at the time and he was one of the principal drafters. Brent tells me that you did not have to live overseas to be considered covert. That is why they drew the distinction between sub-paragraph A and sub-paragraph B of the definition. (Right wingers should go get a friend to explain this portion to them. I realize it is complicated and involves some two syllable words, but you can grasp this is you try.)
Oh, and one more thing. Although Valerie only told a handful of people about her cover status the IIPA also states:
It shall not be an offense under section 421 of this title for an individual to disclose information that solely identifies himself as a covert agent.
You see? It was okay for Valerie to tell her husband where she worked. And Joe, who had been in charge of CIA officers when he was Ambassador, understood that you had to protect the identity of people undercover.
It was very sad watching the Georgia Congressman, Lynn Westmoreland, give the rest of America reason to believe that the South is inhabited with folks who are retarded versions of Gomer Pyle’s cousin, Goober. He seems to have trouble accepting the fact that folks who work inside a classified facility like the CIA, don’t walk around the halls like Wallmart greeters saying, “howdy, I’m Valerie and I’m undercover”. When you join the CIA you are briefed on the fact that most of the folks you will be working with are undercover and that this information is classified and that you do not talk about people by name outside of Headquarters.
Oh, and another thing. The State Department INR memo, which was written in response to a request from Vice President Cheney’s office, listed Valerie’s name in a paragraph that was classified SECRET. Got it? If the information in the paragraph is not SECRET then it should be classified UNCLASSIFIED or U. But that did not happen here. Here name was listed in a classified paragraph. Boys and girls, that means the information in that paragraph is classified. Now, if someone can come up with a picture book for Congressman Goober that can penetrate the in-bred glaze covering his eyes I’ll give you a special prize.
What did we learn in school today? UNDERCOVER = COVERT = CLASSIFIED. Valerie Plame was UNDERCOVER, COVERT, AND CLASSIFIED. And Valerie Plame was betrayed by Bush Administration officials who played politics with her classified identity. Val put that on the record and is willing to go to jail if she lied. But she told the truth, at great personal cost. Speaking of jail, I wonder if Scooter Libby longs for a big, beefy roomate or prefers the Charles Manson variety? Just wondering.
You forget Mona Cherin in that group tho she was not at the hearing she’s just as stupid as Toesing.
I would love to slap both.
And you are right. Plame was class. She showed humor, grace and intellegence. I thought that the one guy who kept asking if she was a democrat was stupid. After what her and Joe Wilson have been thru, it would not matter if they were card carrying republicans, they would have turned dem.
And the republicans showed their intense denial and stupidity as the questioners and as the witnesses. God, I’m glad I’ve never been tempted to be a republican. They are just so damn stupid.
Lynn Westmoreland is Congressman from GA-03, which includes LaGrange, Georgia. Unless I am mistaken, this is essentially the same district that Newt Gingrich represented.
Are there people who live in homes rather than institutions in GA-03?
Toensing and Westmoreland are part of the collection of Republican Noise Machine whores whose only function is to clutter up public discourse with propaganda. They are, unfortunately, not schizophrenic, but paid agents spewing a fasicistic, ideological attack on rationality.
They are, unfortunately, not schizophrenic, but paid agents spewing a fasicistic, ideological attack on rationality.
But what Toesick said yesterday did not remotely have a microcosm of plausibility! How could anyone with an IQ over 75 give her any credence whatsoever?
The same people who voted for Bush, who believed the lies about WMD, a nuclear Iraq, who believe Genesis is a scientific treatise, who think supply side economics is actually economics, who think Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are allies in the “war on terror,” who think Republicans actually are strong on defense, who think tax cuts for the uber-rich stimulate the economy. Need I go any futher. The list is almost endless.
The right wing attack on citizenship and the purpose of public education are co-equal aspects of the attack on rationality. The right has successfully re-defined citizen from one who both governs and is governed to a taxpayer, one who purchases and consumes government services. The purpose of government is not government services but to fulfill the conditions set forth in the Preamble to the Consitution. The purpose of public education is to create good citizens, not to create cogs in the economic machine who will get jobs. But the Right has also distorted that original public educaitonal purpose into simply preparing individuals to get plugged into the job market.
The Right in America is a well funded attack on rationality so that the right wing political and religious lunacies will be seen as just another way to look at things, and not for the ideological distortion of reality it is. American Rightists have learned very well from their twentieth centurty progenitors, fascism and Stalinism.
I find it absolutely mind boggling that adults like Westmoreland and Toensing can be so out of touch with reality and still allowed to walk around without a straight jacket keeping them under control.
You obviously don’t read Bob Somerby’s Daily Howler. Our national discourse has been a joke for years.
David Brooks is peddling the “she wasn’t covert” nonsense
My first reaction to Toesicks disjointed ravings was to want to send her business an email asking if she has always been so severely learning disabled, or if she took too many Ritlin or Prosaic to get through the hearings! My better self warned me that I’d hate myself later for stooping to Toesicks level, so I just turned off the computer for the day.
Toesicks plain inability to understand the two letter word OR between Section 4A and 4B of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act is beyond pathetic! Even a two year old understands when you ask Do you want the white ice-cream OR pink ice cream? that they have an alternative choice to make.
Larry your rant was Terrific! This phrase is absolutely brilliant and I hope you don’t mind if I use it as my sig line, credit due of course?
“level of stupidity and obtuseness that one usually only encounters among schizophrenics hospitalized with the criminally insane.”
Slightly OT, but I wouldn’t mind some expert opinion on that tape played at the Libby trial of Armitage dishing to Woodward about Plame. I understand the nefarious motives of Cheney and those he dispatched to blow Plame’s cover, but I don’t understand why Armitage was so gleeful in doing the same with Woodward. I suppose Woodward having evolved into the semi-insider that he’s become could be trusted, and, in fact, it was Woodward’s own sitting on the story that went a long way in allowing Bush to gain a second term. Armitage’s attitude, however, seems way too casual, especially in the post-9/11 world that the entire GOP raison d’etre depends on now that they’ve ceded domestic issues to the Dems. I think it has to do with the time period of the leaking. Wasn’t this not long after the “Mission Accomplished” crowing of Bush? These guys probably thought they’d achieved the cakewalk that Adelman predicted and nothing would ever again stand in their way. If conventional wisdom could believe that even “nice guys” like Armitage are at bottom political hacks who don’t take their jobs seriously, I can see the GOP losing their defense and foreign policy cred for a long time to come.
You’re kidding, right? WHAT GOP defense and foreign policy “cred”???
Let me be clear; they had no cred with me, but polls have shown pretty consistently for decades that most people trust the GOP more when it comes to defense and foreign policy issues. The GOP strategy to substitute the War on Terror, or Jihadism, or whatever they’re calling it now, for the Cold War is not succeeding and current polls reflect that. The burden is on the Dems to not play the game on the GOP’s murderous xenophobic turf.